15 Heartwarming Books That Will Thaw Your Cold, Dead Heart

Meet Ove. He’s a curmudgeon with staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. Behind the cranky exterior, there is a story and a sadness. So when one November morning, a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters moves in next door and accidentally flatten Ove’s mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of which will change one cranky old man and a local residents’ association to their very foundations.

Tucked away in an old building,the Kokoro Clinic for the Soul can only be found by people who are struggling in their lives and genuinely need help. The mysterious clinic prescribes cats as medication to those who find their way there. The power of the human-animal bond is revealed as a disheartened businessman finds joy in physical labor, a young girl navigates the complexities of cliques, a middle-aged man struggles to stay relevant at work and home, a hardened bag designer seeks balance, and a geisha finds herself unable to move on from the memory of her lost cat.

After resurrecting her recently deceased great-aunt Jasmine, Sera, previously one of Britain’s most powerful witches, lost her magic and was exiled from her Guild. Now, she reluctantly helps Jasmine run an enchanted inn, tries to keep its quirky inhabitants (including a talking fox) in check, and dreams of what could have been. When she learns about a spell that could return her lost power, she turns to one of the inn’s handsome newcomers for help.

Aiden Valentine has fallen out of love with love. As the host of Baltimore’s romance hotline, that’s a bit of a problem. But when a young girl calls the station for dating advice for her mom, the interview goes viral, thrusting Aiden into the limelight. Lucie Stone thought she was doing just fine. But when all of Baltimore is suddenly scrutinizing her love life, she begins to question if she’s as happy as she believed.

Temi and Wale meet in London. They flirt, date, and meet each other’s friends. Then they break up, and Wale goes on a reality dating show. Temi throws herself into her dream: writing. She’s within touching distance of a book deal that would solve all her problems. But publishers keep passing on her novel, and bills still have to be paid. So, when the opportunity to ghostwrite a celebrity memoir arises, Temi accepts. And, of course, the celebrity turns out to be Wale…Will Temi and Wale repeat the patterns of their past? Or can they write a whole new story?

It’s been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness and laid down their tools; centuries since they wandered, en masse, into the wilderness, never to be seen again; centuries since they faded into myth and urban legend. One day, the life of a tea monk is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in. The robot cannot go back until the question of “what do people need?” is answered. But the answer to that question depends on who you ask, and how. They’re going to need to ask it a lot.

As a Case Worker at the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, Linus Baker is tasked with traveling to Marsyas Island Orphanage, where six dangerous children reside. Linus must set aside his fears and determine whether or not they’re likely to bring about the end of days. But the children aren’t the only secret the island keeps. As long-held secrets are exposed, Linus must make a choice: destroy a home or watch the world burn.

When Annie Wildwood’s coven tasks her with helping an orphan teenage witch get her magical powers under control, Annie is excited for the chance to please them. But the cabin they’ll be housed in isn’t quite the staycation of Annie’s dreams—and she and Maeve couldn’t be more different. Just when they’re starting to understand each other, the owner of the cabin unexpectedly returns—and the handsome warlock is not pleased to find that the coven volunteered his house.

Viv’s career with the Rackam’s Ravens isn’t going as planned. Wounded during the hunt for a powerful necromancer, she’s packed off against her will to recuperate in the sleepy town of Murk. Spending her hours at a bookshop with its foul-mouthed proprietor is the last thing Viv would have predicted, but it may be exactly what she needs. Still, adventure isn’t all that far away. A suspicious traveler in gray, a gnome with a chip on her shoulder, a summer fling, and an improbable number of skeletons prove Murk to be more eventful than Viv could have ever expected.

On a back street in Tokyo lies a pawnshop, but most will see a cozy ramen restaurant, and only the chosen ones will find a place to pawn their life choices and deepest regrets. Hana Ishikawa wakes on her first morning as the pawnshop’s new owner to find it ransacked, the shop’s most precious acquisition stolen, and her father missing. And then into the shop stumbles a charming stranger. Together, they must journey through a mystical world to find Hana’s father and the stolen choice.

After a bad breakup, Tiffy Moore needs a place to live. Fast. Desperation makes her open-minded, so she answers an ad for a flatshare. Leon, a night shift worker, will take the apartment during the day, and Tiffy can have it nights and weekends. He’ll only ever be there when she’s at the office. In fact, they’ll never even have to meet. They start writing each other notes—first about what day is garbage day and politely establishing what leftovers are up for grabs. Even though they are opposites, they soon become friends. And then maybe more.

In a small back alley of Tokyo, there is a café that has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. Local legend says that this shop offers something else besides coffee—the chance to travel back in time. Over the course of one summer, four customers visit the café in the hopes of making that journey. But time travel isn’t so simple, and there are rules that must be followed. Most important, the trip can last only as long as it takes for the coffee to get cold.

From the moment she first learned to read, Darcy Wells has spent most of her time living in the worlds of her books. There, she can avoid the crushing reality of her mother’s hoarding and pretend her life is simply ordinary. But then Asher Fleet, a former teen pilot with an unexpectedly shattered future, walks into the bookstore where she works…and straight into her heart. But securing her own happily-ever-after will mean she’ll need to stop hiding and start living her own truth—even if it’s messy.

When Saphira opens her cafe, she isn’t expecting it to be quite so hard to keep the fires burning. But her young dragon patrons keep incinerating her furniture, which means selling coffee isn’t covering all her costs. Local heart-throb Aiden has an idea—he’ll ask Saphira to train his dragon, and pay her enough to keep the cafe afloat. They know they’re the answer to each other’s problems, but happy-go-lucky Saphira and gorgeous-but-grumpy Aiden couldn’t be more different. Can they find a way to work together – and maybe even ignite some fire of their own?

Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He does miss investigation work, but his days of adventure are over; adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s business now. Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. Working in private security, every day is dangerous. She’s currently on a remote island protecting mega-bestselling author Rosie D’Antonio, until a dead body and a bag of money mean trouble in paradise. So she sends an SOS to the only person she trusts. As a race around the world begins, can Amy and Steve outsmart a killer?